Cinema: Freak Show

Roustabout. Step right up, folks. It's a carnival, and here come the freaks. Way down there is the midget, way up there is "the tallest man in the world." Behind that bush stands the bearded lady and over in the cutlery department the sword-swallower is just about to show his guts. But say, what's that whatsit wriggling down the midway: that long damp thing with the pale-green skin and the pollywog eyes and the squirmy little mouth.

Sure enough, it's Elvis Presley. Just after the film begins he oozes up to his carnivalentine (Joan Freeman) and attaches that mouth to her face. She staggers back in alarm, but the old softie (Barbara Stanwyck) who owns the show takes a liking to the lunk and pays him to sing pretty for the people. He doesn't sing very pretty, but there are compensations—when he starts singing he stops acting. Anyway, just before the film ends Elvis presents a fairly stiff upper lip, pays off the mortgage, gets the girl. "Git closuh," he instructs her bluntly. "Ah give awff body heat." To doubt it would doubtless be unkind.